With the expanding array of brain imaging modalities and analysis techniques, there is a growing need for tools to process and link neuroimaging data with clinical, behavioral, and genetic information. The Neuroinformatics Research Group (NRG) at Harvard builds tools and infrastructure to facilitate the integration, interrogation, and sharing of these and associated data types.
Along with our collaborators e.g. the NRG at Washington University in St. Louis, we have developed and support a number of open-source projects including the the Brain Genomics Superstruct Project (BGSP), the Extensible Neuroimaging Archive Toolkit (XNAT), and the Open Access Structural Imaging Series (OASIS) public data sets.
The NRG at Harvard is a collaborative effort between the Center for Brain Science, the Initiative in Innovative Computing at Harvard, and the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at the Massachusetts General Hospital. We are also members of the Bioinformatics Research Network (BIRN) and receive additional support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Here's a short list of our projects: - BGSP - The Brain Genomics Superstruct Project is enabling a large-scale exploration of the links between genes, brain function, and behavior. Understanding the genetic underpinnings of normal brain variation will illuminate human nature; understanding genetic risk factors for brain disorders will shed light on neuropsychiatric, neurologic and other diseases with tremendous emotional and financial costs. The BGSP has already captured data from over 1300 human participants since late-2008.
- OASIS - The Open Access Structural Imaging Series (OASIS) is a series of
publicly available data sets consisting of high interest brain images
and associated measures. The first set in the series includes 400
images obtained from healthy and clinical populations across the
lifespan. Read more...
- XNAT- Primarily developed out of the NRG at Washington University in St.
Louis, the Extensible Neuroimaging Archive Toolkit (XNAT) layers
neuroimaging customizations on top of the Extensible Data Archiving
Toolkit (XDAT). XNAT provides an online neuroimage repository with
customizable web pages, online image viewing, scan validation, and
workflow capabilities. Read More...
- FIV - The Functional Image Viewer (FIV) is a cross-platform tool for
visualizing functional and structural neuroimaging data. FIV is based
on the popular ImageJ image processing software.. Read more...
- BFW - Bash Framework is an open source framework and library for developing
robust shell scripts. Bash Framework aims to increase productivity by
providing components containing commonly used functionality e.g.,
automatic parameter parsing, logging, database and web-server
administration and filesystem management. Please visit the Bash Framework page for more details.
- iCog - iCognition is an Open Source software package that enables research
labs to create and administer batteries of standardized behavioral
tests, as well as retrieve and analyze the data collected from those
subjects. Unlike the tests from other software solutions, which are
machine-dependent, the tests developed with iCognition can be completed
online using a modern browser, either in a lab facility or at home,
thus increasing the overall number of data sets collected by the lab.
- Neuroimaging Framework - Neuroimaging Framework is a toolkit and framework that provides a consistent API around a growing number of neuroimaging analysis packages (e.g. FSL, AFNI, DCMTK). It is used extensively within the BGSP (described above) as well as several other projects.
- OpenBT - OpenBT is a toolkit for exposing analysis tools to the
web where they may be accessed through basic REST transactions. OpenBT is fast, secure, scalable and operates over HTTP or HTTPS.
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